GMO Will Use Blockchain to Facilitate Payments For Its New Internet Bank

Japan-based GMO will use blockchain to facilitate payments for its new internet bank, reported Coindesk on July 17.

The digital services firm expressed through a company statement that it had partnered with Aozora Bank Group in order to be prepared for the development of the “next-generation” bank, a project they are working on since 2016.

The joint enterprise called GMO Aozora Net Bank will focus on providing new financial services by integrating new technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, internet of things. The services the new entity will provide will combine fintech and IT.

The new bank will be collaborating with GMO in order “to develop a new settlement system utilizing blockchain technology.”

The bank expressed,

“Through the application of blockchain technology, there is an increasing expectation for breakthroughs for safer and cheaper payments and financial services.”

GMO Aozora Net Bank is planning to make its payment infrastructure available for other financial institutions in the future under a “white label” licensing model since it claims it will be a “platform bank”.

At the beginning of June, the firm announced that it was launching a mobile app allowing its users to earn bitcoin. The IT firm also claimed it had mined more than $3 million in 2018 in March.